Business Tips

Challenges Women Face in the Business World

It’s almost been a full century since the passing of the Parliament Qualification of Women Act in 1918, which allowed women to be elected into Parliament in the UK and over 80 years since women over the age of 21 could effectively vote equally alongside men.

Yet still almost an entire century later women face multiple challenges by mere virtue of being women in the workplace and perhaps even more so in the business world. It’s a sad but true reality, so if there are any women out there who are venturing into the big bad world of business, just brace yourself for extra challenges you’ll be faced with just because you’re a woman.

Sexualised Stigma

For some reason which is beyond me and million other women (and some men too), if you are indeed a woman who finds herself in a position of authority or other high position, rest-assured at least a dozen or more people who are aware of your status and position are somehow convinced that you slept your way to the top. It’s one of the saddest realities of being a woman in business, but is a fallacy which just refuses to die.

This fallacy is most prevalent within corporate structures in which you effectively earned your high-standing position or status as a result of working hard to climb up the corporate ladder, but you can’t escape it even if you founded your very own business and built it up from scratch.

The mystery which is automatically assigned to the business-building scenario is one of whether or not you managed to get business by using the fact that you’re a woman, if you know what I mean. I kid you not – it’s not a very pleasant thought to have, but is a thought which merely mirrors reality, never mind how loudly the quality of the work you produce speaks for you.

Not Being Taken Seriously

As if having to live with the fact that people question your path to the top in a sexualised manner isn’t enough, we women in business also have to deal with the problem of not being taken seriously.

It’s such an institutionalised practice that a lot of instigators don’t even realise they’re doing it, while women themselves have also become numb to it and don’t readily realise that their contributions and legitimate ideas are being overlooked simply because we wear skirts.

What Counts is Delivery

There are many other challenges women face in business daily, but since the institutionalised negative attitude doesn’t seem like it’s going to see any significant reforms any time soon, ultimately what matters is that you deliver a stellar job you can be proud of, every time you’re called upon to deliver your product or service.